Pot-Limit Omaha for beginners
Pot-Limit Omaha, or PLO, is the second most popular poker game in the world and the most exciting one to switch to once you know Hold'em. You get four hole cards instead of two, hands get much stronger, and the betting has a ceiling you can learn to calculate in a minute.
The rules in one minute
PLO uses the same table as Texas Hold'em: a dealer button, a small blind and a big blind, and four betting rounds (pre-flop, flop, turn and river) with five community cards. If you have never played Hold'em, read how to play first; everything there applies here. Two things change.
1. Four hole cards, use exactly two
Each player is dealt four private cards. At showdown your hand is made from exactly two of your hole cards and exactly three of the five board cards. Not one, not three, not four. With four hole cards there are six possible pairs of them, and each can be combined with any three of the board cards, so you are always choosing the best of 60 possible five-card hands. PokerClub picks the best one for you automatically, but you need to read it correctly to make good decisions.
Three examples that trip up every beginner:
- The board has four spades, K♠ 9♠ 6♠ 2♠ 8♥, and you hold A♠ Q♥ J♦ 10♣. You do not have a flush. You need two spades in your hand, and you have one.
- The board has four to a straight, 5♣ 6♦ 7♥ 8♠ K♣, and you hold 9♥ A♦ A♣ 2♠. You do not have a straight. Your nine fits, but with only three board cards the straight needs a second connecting card from your hand: a 10 (for 6-7-8-9-10) or a 5, 6, 7 or 8 (for 5-6-7-8-9). An ace or a two does not help.
- You hold three of a kind in your hand, Q♠ Q♥ Q♦ 4♣. That is not three queens. You can only use two of them, so it plays as a pair of queens until the board helps.
2. Pot-limit betting
In No-Limit Hold'em you may push every chip in at any time. In PLO the largest bet or raise you can make is the size of the pot. That is where the name comes from, and it is what keeps the game strategic even when everyone holds big hands.
How to work out a pot-sized bet
If nobody has bet yet, a pot-sized bet is simply the amount in the pot. If there is a bet in front of you, the rule is: first imagine you call, then raise by the size of the new pot. The quick formula for the maximum raise is:
maximum raise to = 3 × the last bet + everything that was in the pot before that bet
The examples below use blinds of 10/20, the smallest PLO stake in Free Play.
| Situation | Working | Maximum |
|---|---|---|
| First to act pre-flop | Pot is 30 (10 + 20). Call 20 makes 50. Raise by 50. | Raise to 70 |
| Pre-flop after one player called 20 | Pot is 50. Your call of 20 makes 70. Raise by 70. | Raise to 90 |
| First to act on the flop, pot 200 | Nothing to call. Bet the pot. | Bet 200 |
| Flop, pot 200, opponent bets 100 | Pot is now 300. Your call of 100 makes 400. Raise by 400. | Raise to 500 |
| Same hand, a third player re-raises | Pot is 200 + 100 + 500 = 800. Call 500 makes 1,300. Raise by 1,300. | Raise to 1,800 |
Check the formula against the last row: 3 × 500 + 300 (the 200 pot plus the 100 bet before the raise) = 1,800. The minimum raise works as in Hold'em: at least the size of the previous bet or raise. On PokerClub the bet slider stops at the pot limit, so you never have to do this arithmetic under the turn timer. Knowing it still matters, because it tells you how fast a pot grows. Three pot-sized bets turn a small pot into a stack-sized one, which is why PLO stacks go in on the turn and river far more often than in Hold'em.
Starting hands: what makes a good one
There are 270,725 different four-card starting hands, so nobody memorises a chart. Instead, judge each hand by how well its four cards work together. Every card should help at least one of the others.
- Suited, ideally double-suited. A hand with two cards of one suit and two of another, such as A♠ K♥ J♠ 10♥, can make a flush in two different ways. A single-suited hand is good; a double-suited one is better. Three or four cards of one suit are worse than they look, because you can only use two and the extra ones are cards you need that are now out of the deck.
- Connected. Cards close in rank, such as 10-9-8-7 or J-10-9-8, make many straights and hit a wide range of flops. Gaps weaken them; a hand like K-9-5-2 almost never makes a strong straight.
- Nut potential. In PLO someone often holds the best possible hand, called the nuts. Flushes and straights that are not the highest can cost you a lot. An ace with a suited card, like A♥ together with 8♥, draws to the nut flush; 7♥ 5♥ draws to a flush that may lose to a bigger one.
- High pairs with support. Aces are good, but A♠ A♥ with two random cards is much weaker than A♠ A♥ with K♠ Q♥, which adds straight and flush chances.
Pre-flop, equities run much closer than in Hold'em. Even the best starting hands are only modest favourites against two random cards per opponent, so position and post-flop play matter more than a single strong hand. Play more hands from the button and fewer from the blinds and the first seats to act.
Common beginner mistakes
- Misreading your hand. Counting a flush with one suited card or a straight that needs three of your cards. Say the rule to yourself each time: two from my hand, three from the board.
- Overvaluing aces. Two aces with unrelated cards often end up as one pair on a board full of straights and flushes. Ace-ace is a good start, not a finished hand.
- Chasing non-nut draws. Calling big bets to make a small flush or the low end of a straight. When you get there, you are often second best.
- Playing too many hands. With four cards almost every hand looks playable. Most are not. Fold hands with no suits, no connections and no high cards.
- Treating top pair like Hold'em. In PLO, one pair is rarely good enough to play a big pot. Two pair and sets are much more common, and so are the hands that beat them.
- Forgetting the board. If the board is paired, a full house is possible. If three cards of one suit are showing, someone may hold two more.
Practise at Free Play PLO tables
The fastest way to learn PLO is to play a lot of hands without anything at stake. PokerClub's Free Play lobby runs Pot-Limit Omaha tables at three blind levels, 10/20, 20/40 and 50/100, with six seats and buy-ins from 20 to 100 big blinds. You start with 2,500 free virtual chips and can top up with 500 more whenever you run out. Start at 10/20, buy in for the full 100 big blinds so you face real post-flop decisions, and use the table's hand history to review what your opponents showed down.
Once you are comfortable, open a PLO table in your own private club. Owners choose the game for every cash table and tournament, so your group can mix Hold'em and Omaha on the same night.
Grab 2,500 free chips and sit down at a 10/20 PLO table.
Play Omaha freeMore guides: how to play Pineapple OFC, poker hand rankings with odds, running a home tournament and a poker night with friends online.
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